Mona Burton

In times of danger, according to Ps. 91: 1, 2, 9, the protected one is required to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, confess that the LORD is his refuge and his fortress, trust in Him, and make Him his habitation Metaphors that are used of God's protection in Ps. 91 are:- shadow, refuge, fortress, shield, buckler, deliverer, and rescuer

If according to the Old and New Testaments both Yahweh and Adonai are usually rendered by the Greek noun 'Kurios' meaning 'owner' or 'master' and also used as a title for Yahweh and Jesus, then when I confess "Jesus is Lord", I am actually confessing that Jesus owns me. He is my master and so has power and authority over me. So in confessing that "Jesus is Lord" means that I surrender to Him and obey him. Jesus asked, "Why call Me Lord, Lord and do not the things which I tell you?" Confessing Jesus is Lord is necessary for salvation because according to Romans 10: 9 it is the only way to be saved. Paul states categorically that it takes the Spirit of Yahweh for a person to call Jesus "Lord". When that person in all honesty and humility surrenders will and life to the Master, and confesses Him to be "Lord" then is when salvation is come to that person's life.

The implications for governments that Yahweh is the King of kings and Lord of lords are that: 1. Every government should be cognizant of the fact that there is a God and that the world and everything in it belong to Him, and that He has total control. 2. Having been given such a great responsibility of governing a nation/people, they are to do so justly and in all fairness knowing that they are under surveillance by the Most High Himself and that they are accountable to Him for He is the King over all other kings and rulers in the world. The implications of removing "God" from a nation's symbols and ardently secularizing national life are that that nation has in essence removed itself from under the divine providence of heaven and in so doing is without spiritual guidance. With regard to God the King, the choice they made to "excommunicate" (exclude) Him from 'their life' puts that nation outside the scope of His suzerainty and leaves it exposed to both natural as well as spiritual assaults form enemies waiting for an opportunity.

The personal implications of Yahweh being my King and of Jesus being the Messiah sent from God are that I must submit my will to His as he is in charge. He rules with absolute power for all time and His word is law. And I am so very grateful to God for sending Jesus the Messiah to be my saviour. The advantages of of being the subject of Yahweh are that all that I have to do is obey the laws of the kingdom, find out what pleases the King and do it, then He will provide everything that I might have need of. For me to submit to the King means that I have to daily seek His will and do it. It means that I have to be in daily communication with Him so that I can find out what His will is for each day. A person can reject Yahweh from being King over him/her by being self-sufficient and self-reliant, total[y independent of God, doing his/her own thing, living life to suit him/herself.

In the Old Testament the people understood the concept of giving to the king so that he would have enough to sustain his administration. So when God made a covenant with the Israelites to be their King and LORD, to provide for them, to protect them, to fight for them, to be their "suzerain", they humbly became His "vassals" and agreed to give Him "tribute" which was the tithe, for the upkeep of His administration on earth - the priests and levites. Those who rejected God as their King refused to tithe and suffered at the hand of the devourer. In Malachi 3: 8 - 10 the King accused them of robbing Him. Something they learnt, they would not get away with. Living under the New Covenant does not exempt us from tithing. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus indicated that tithing is still very much relevant. As subjects of the King of Kings tithing for us is very important. 1. It is one way of honouring God. 2. Tithing helps to support the ministries of the kingdom and those employed in His service.

The titles "King of Glory" and "Father of Glory" tell us that He is God Most High (El 'Elyon), the High and Lofty One. They tell us that there is none like him. Everyone and everything else is created, but not Him. He is from everlasting to everlasting and is exalted far above what we could ever begin to imagine. He is supreme in His sovereignty (no one can challenge His power or His rulership). Even though He is the "King of Glory", Most Exalted One who sits upon the circle of the earth, He is not only the "Father of Glory" to Christ but to us His children. He loves us inexpressibly and adopted us into HIs family so that we can have practical and experiential relationships with Him. As we worship Him, we must do so with the consideration of His supremacy and majesty, bowing and casting our metaphorical crowns before Him until such time when we can literally do so. We must worship Him in humility and sincerity, in spirit and truth, surrendering our all to Him and not holding back anything for He deserves nothing less. According to 2 Corinthians 3: 18, God's glory comes to fill our lives when we, through the shed blood of Jesus, are freed from sin and are transformed into His image, from glory to glory -from one degree of His glorious grace to another.

Justice is like a scale and weight - to get the correct weight, the scale must balance. It is a reward or penalty that is deserved. According to the Bible it is giving a person exactly what he/she deserves - the punishment must fit the crime. Vengeance is action taken against a person as punishment for offence or injury caused by him/her. In Isaiah 42: 8 God said that He gives His glory to no man, and so when Herod Agrippa accepted adulation from the people of Tyre and S[don he was immediately smote by an angel of the Lord, was eaten by worms and he died 'because he gave not God the glory. Mercy can be defined as showing compassion and forgiveness to one who has offended; also mercy is one enjoying God's divine, unmerited favour. A Holy and Righteous God cannot forgive sins justly without punishment. The sinner who continues in his sins and do not repent will be punished for his sins. This is a fact stated throughout the Bible. Christians on the other hand, who believe in Jesus Christ have already had all of our sins (past, present and future) judged by God when He accepted Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross in our place. So according to Romans 8: 1, there in no more condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Because of the sacrifice Jesus made for us when He died on the cross, God only sees the righteousness of His Son whenever He looks on us. This does not mean that we as believers get away with sin. We are not 'punished' but instead we are chastened (Hebrews 12: 6). God as our loving Father does not spoil His children. If we continue to be disobedient He will discipline us even as earthly fathers discipline their children for their own benefit. Because of the cross of Jesus we, His children, have escaped the the punishment we otherwise would have so justly deserve.

Since God is the Helper of the Fatherless and the Protector of Widows, it is our Christian duty to follow in His footsteps and do the same. Paul said 'follow me as I follow Christ'. In Matthew 6 Jesus instructed us to give help (alms) to those in need. So I do believe that this should be a very major part of not only the church's but every believer's commitment to social justice in the communities in which we live. We should be seeking out the needy widows and fatherless, making sure, as much as we are able to, that they are provided for. It is what God expects of us.

If we believe that truth and morality are all relative to one's culture, we cannot know and understand the Righteous and Upright God because that kind of belief is literally denying Him and who He is. Our culture promotes 'every man to his own order', and right there is an absolute denial of the Righteous and Upright One who is truth. The Bible tells us that the world and its fullness belong to God and therefore it is by His sovereign rule we and everyone else must abide. Those who don't, will have no part with Him. I think an effective approach to declaring God and His Son Jesus Christ in a relativistic world is by way of love and the word of God. Jesus told His disciples to love one another for He said "... by this shall ALL MEN know that you are my disciples." Hebrews 4: 12 tells us "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword,piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." In my community most people do not want anything to do with God when all is well. But when they are sick or have a problem that is beyond them, then they want to hear about Him and how He can help them. One strategy we use is hospital visitation. The church where I am a member has a deliverance service every Wednesday and I think almost the entire community knows about this. So another strategy is to invite and pray with those who are suffering from whatever their issue is. A lot of them find their way there without an invitation. When they are in desperate need of help, they know only God can provide it for them.

The realization of God's holiness caused Isaiah to recognize his sinfulness. He admits with his "Woe is me! for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips ..." that he had offended in words. Having seen the King, the LORD of hosts, Isaiah thought that he was now going to die, and so was afraid. Judges 13: 22 reads :And Manoah said unto his wife, we shall surely die, because we have seen God. In Judges 6: 22 Gideon expressed the very same sentiment. God made Isaiah holy by having one of the seraphim take a live (burning) coal from the altar and touched his lips. The coal from the altar symbolises the precious blood of Jesus Christ. just as Isaiah's iniquity was taken away and his sin purged by the coal touching his lips, even so when we come into contact with the blood of Jesus, we are cleansed from our sins. Now made holy - dedicated to God - Isaiah's response to God was "Here am I, send me" without any hesitation, which denotes his readiness and willingness to be in the service of God.

Repeated words found in verses 28 to 31 are: the LORD in 28 and 31. Fainteth in 28 is derived from the root faint which is found in 29 and 31. The word weary is in verses 28, 30, and 31. Strength is found in 29 and repeated in verse 31. As disciples we need to understand that 'He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth', He is the creator of everything. He alone can make or He can break. He alone is El Shaddai, the Almighty God. He has the power to do as He pleases. Verse 22 declares that 'the inhabitants thereof (the earth) are as grasshoppers'. Have no value without Him. There is nothing hidden from Him. He sees and understands the conditions of every man's heart and deals with him accordingly. But He gives grace to the humble. Those who will trust in Him and wait on Him will have their strength renewed to do exploits in every area of their lives. I AM THAT I AM has total and complete control over everything and everyone. Every other god has to be taken care of, has to be moved, has to be put in its place. The owner has to do everything for IT. It is a thing made from something that YAHWEH created. If we recognise this one fact, then we will give complete allegiance to the one and only Great God.

In this passage I see the names, titles, and metaphors of God in the following terms and phrases: Verse 1 LORD - El; Rock of our salvation. Verse 3 LORD - El; Great God - Jehovah; Great King - Elohim; above all gods - God Most High (El Elyon). Verse 4 The Strength of the hills. Verse 5 & 6 the sea is His, and He made it; our maker - Creator; His hands formed the dry lands - Potter Verse 7 our God - our Elohim; the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand - Shepherd. The Psalmist calls on us to sing unto the LORD, to make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms, to come before His presence with thanksgiving, to come worship, bow down and kneel before Him. These action are appropriate because He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.

The Potter, Creator, Maker has every right over what He has created because it belongs to Him. It is His own to do with as He likes. No one has the right to tell Him what, how, when or where, to do with His creation. Knowing that I belong to my Creator causes me to breathe with a sigh of relief and a sense of belonging/being owned. Knowing who my Maker is and knowing that I am His gives me such sweet confidence in who I am and Whose I am. I do not have any reason to worry about anything because I know that He cares for me. 1 Peter 5: 7 says "Cast your cares upon Him for He cares for you." And to back that, there is Philippians 4: 6, 7 which instructs me not to 'be anxious about anything, but ...' In Him, I can face any situation confidently, knowing that His eyes are on me. I can go through this life with a pep in my steps, the peace of God in my heart, and the joy of the LORD as my song. Knowing that I am His and He is mine is my strength in doing whatever it is that I have to do, according to my calling.

Q1. (Isaiah 45:9-12) Why is it ridiculous for a pot to second-guess the Potter? How do we Christians do this? What is a better attitude and behavior before our Creator? It is ridiculous for a pot to second-guess the Potter because the Potter is the one with the brains here. The pot is just a lump of lifeless clay without even a head to hold a thought. It has no ability to do anything. It cannot make any decision as to what it wants to be. The Potter is the mastermind. He decides what he is going to make and executes it as is reflected in Jeremiah 18: 3b, 4. We Christian second-guess our Maker by 1. deciding what we want in and for our life. We even go as far as referring to those of us who do this as 'carnal minded' and advise that prayer is the way to go. 2. telling God what we want. When we do this we consider it as being 'spiritual' because we 'pray'. But whether we make our own decisions or tell God what we want, we are being as ridiculous as the pot telling the Potter what to do. A better attitude and behaviour before our Creator is to be malleable and say to Him, Master we are the clay, and You are the Potter. We may not like what He wants for us but like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, we should humbly cry "LORD not my will but thine".

I learn from the phrase "High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy ..." that He is not to be taken lightly, not to be taken for granted. 'High and Lofty One' to me means that He is in a class all by Himself. There is none like Him, none can do what He can do. If He is out to get you, there is none who can stop Him, or rescue you from Him. There is no one who can contend or compete with Him. "High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity whose name is Holy ..." speaks not only of Him being in a class by Himself but being in that class from everlasting to everlasting and who has a name like no other, Holy, who wants the same for His children, for in 1 Peter 1: 16, quoting from Leviticus 11: 44, He instructs us to 'be holy, for I am holy.' For me, seeing God as the "High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity and whose name is Holy ..." has inspired a healthy dose of fear in me. It is not that I haven't had a fear of/for God in my heart but this vision of Him seems to have heightened that fear which in turn tells me that I have to walk more circumspectly, striving to be holy as He is, walking in the Spirit so as not to displease Him. I know that He loves me, and I love Him too, but I also recognise that He is a very serious God. .

David was able to challenge Goliath because he understood who the Living God was/is and also he knew and had a friendly relationship with Him. Psalm 8, a Psalm of David where he extols the name of The LORD in singing "O LORD our LORD how excellent is your name in all the earth! ..." proves that he knew In Psalm 23 he said that the LORD is his Shepherd. You see, David had experiences with God before he met with Goliath. in 1 Samuel 17: 34 - 37 he relates to King Saul how on occasions while taking care of his father's sheep a lion and a bear came and grabbed a lamb, how he went after both of them with his staff and rescue the lambs, killing the predators. In verse 37 he said "The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this uncircumcised Philistine." Oh how they that know their God shall do exploits! Hebrews 10: 31 is referring back to what is said in the earlier part of chp. 10 where the writer is exhorting the believers to hold fast to what God had done for them through the ultimate sacrificial death of His Son on the cross for their/our sins without wavering. What the blood of sheep and goats could not do, the blood of God's Son did in sanctifying us through the offering of His body once for all. Through the blood of Jesus He forgave us our sins and forgot about them, granting us admission into His awesome, holy presence. Now, if, as believers, after having experienced the full goodness of God in the remission of our sins; after experiencing His sanctifying power; after knowing fully well what Jesus suffered at the hands of sinners for us, so that we can be spared what we justly had coming to us, and sin wilfully, then it will be a fearful thing indeed to fall into the hands of the Living God, for "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins ..." Despising and rejecting the only begotten Son of God brings to the perpetrator divine displeasure and dreadful recompense. Zephaniah 1: 14 - 18 is nothing compared to what God will do to those who sin against the LORD in that final day of retribution.

The idea of "first" and "last" as used in Isaiah 46: 6 tells me that God is eternal. To my way of thinking God is like a circle. A circle has no beginning and no end, just like God. God is from everlasting, before the worlds were, and will be to everlasting, when all things may have passed away. Hadn't God been there to create, there would have been nothing, not the world, not the people in it, there would have been absolutely nothing. God's revelation of Himself to Moses as "I AM THAT I AM" and Revelation 1:8 very much relate to each other because when God spoke to Moses, what He was actually saying was that His name encompasses all that He is. The heathen nations had a god for everything, e.g. a god for their crops, another god the weather, a god for fertility, etc. But the God who spoke to Moses was/is one God capable of handling everything. I AM THAT I AM says to me that whatever I want Him to be for me, HE IS. My healer, provider, deliverer, and the list goes on. Revelation 1: 8 sums up in a nutshell who He is, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, (the Genesis and the Revelation) who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. He has always been, and He will always be.

I think to "inhabit eternity" is like living in the Garden of Eden before man's fall. Everything is perfect. There is just love and laughter, joy and gladness. There is total wholeness - nothing lacking, nothing broken. Everyone will be living in love and unity. And the awesome relationship with our Father where nothing gets in the way of sweet, glorious fellowship is mind boggling. We will be happily dancing around Him, bowing in worship and adoring Him eternally. When we inhabit eternity there will be such peace, such glorious peace. The Bible talks about ruling and reigning with Christ. I do not know what my task will be but what I do know is that being with THEM eternally makes me want to dance the jig on my head and every other body part ??. But I suppose I should be a little more pious about this subject ?. The emotions this inspire in me range from pure joy mingled with some amount of impatience to excitement, then some sobering up with the thought 'would I be afraid of Him?' followed immediately by 'nope, I will not have to be afraid' for He is love. Right now just the thought of spending eternity with Him has me smiling from ear to ear like the cat that found itself locked in the pantry with all the milk. But seriously, it really makes me excitingly happy.

God's name 'Yahweh' reveals His Self-existence, His Self-sufficiency. In His name 'Yahweh', God reveals that He was not created, nor was there any before Him. For He was, and is and always will be. There was none like Him, is none like Him, and never will be any like Him. He is the eternal, all powerful God. An understanding of Yahweh's name would greatly contrast Him with the idols worshipped by the Egyptians in that His name (Yahweh) reveals His relationship with man. Genesis 2 and 3 tell of Yahweh-Elohim the creator of everything and the redeemer of mankind. Yahweh is all-sufficient for those who belong to Him. He is our Mighty Deliverer, Mighty Warrior, Great Provider, our Healer, our Peace, our everything. The idols worshipped by the Egyptians were made by man, (man who was made by Yahweh), had no life, could do nothing by itself for itself. The owners of idols were the ones who protected their gods (idols) instead of their gods (idols) protecting or providing for them. A story I find very amusing in the Bible is in Genesis 31 where Rachel stole her father's household gods. The poor gods couldn't do a thing to prevent themselves from being stolen. All idols are the same.

Knowing that the battle is the Lord's should give me the confidence to approach life with the conviction that my victory is already won. Won for me by Jehovah Gibbor Himself who is the Almighty Warrior. Both timidity and brashness get it wrong because: 1. timidity lacks courage, and a child of God without courage is a child of God who has little or no faith in the ability of his/her Father, and also doubts His promises. He/She is afraid when faced with challenges and adversity, not trusting God to take care of him/her. Timidity gets it wrong because it is saying to God, 'You are not able to ...' 2. brashness in a child of God is one who may not wait on God for directions before jumping into the melee. He thinks he knows exactly what God wants done and how He wants it done, and he claims, by acting this way, that he is acting in/by faith, totally forgetting that the Word says that we must acknowledge Him in all of our ways and He will direct our paths, and that the battle is the Lord's. There are instances in which the Lord will not fight our battles, and those instances are when we try to fight them in our own strength, depending on our perceived skills and abilities.

In this battle Moses' rod was like a signal pole to the troops fighting. Every time they glanced at that rod they remembered how he (Moses) used it against Pharaoh and his sorcerers to eventually get them out of Egypt, how he used it to separate the waters of the Red Sea and get them through on dry ground, and how he used the same rod to bring the waters back together to drowned the Egyptians who were following hard on their heels. They remembered how it was the very same rod Moses used to strike the rock to get them water when they were thirsty. Most important, they knew that the great I AM THAT I AM was with Moses, so when they looked on the rod lifted high is his hand they recognized it as a signal/sign that YAHWEH had this one too, and that He was right there fighting alongside them. When we are faced with battles, as children of God, we can lift our eyes and our voices to our awesome Heavenly Father from whom we draw strength and courage, and have Him rush to our rescue. Isaiah 59:19 states "When the enemy comes in, like a flood the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him". We can rest assured that in spite of what may come up against us we do not have to worry or be afraid, for we can go to bed on Psalm 18.

The title 'Most High', to me means that there is no other above Him. Not only is He the highest, but He is also the only. God is God all by Himself. He is incomparable. There is no other god like Him. He shows Himself superior to all other. Every other god has no other option than to bow before Him. In 1 Sam. 5: 1 - 8 He declared in no uncertain manner that He is "Most High" when Dagon, the Philistine god did not only bow but fell flat on his face, not once but twice, in homage to an object that represented His presence. Unlike the saints in Glory, he didn't have a crown to cast at the Master's feet so he cast his head instead (even an image made of wood or stone recognized Him to be Most High). And so Romans 8: 31 ... if God is for us, who can be against us(?), now has a deeper, stronger significance for me, for the "Most High" in whom I believe is more than able to keep all that I have committed unto Him. Worship for me is a lifestyle, and so it means that everything I am and do have to reflect that God is 'Most High' in my life. My trust has to be fully in Him, even when I cannot fathom why I should trust Him, when all may seem to be coming up against me, when the road ahead seems to be dark and dismal. That is when I must throw my hands up in praise and say to Him "Most High God" I know You've got this.

John 7: 30 states "Then they sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come." Jesus did not call on the heavenly host in the garden of Gethsemane because 'His hour' had now come. Acts 2: 23 "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God..." That which He had come to do, now had to be done. Calling on the heavenly host to stop the religious people and their band wagon would have been contrary to Isaiah 53: 7 "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." Jesus' mission to earth was to die for degenerate man in order to regenerate him, so, He did not call. When Jesus does call on the heavenly host (Rev.19: 11 - 16) judgement will be executed (Rev. 19: 15 ... He smites the nations...) on the enemies of God (Rev. 19: 19 - 21) and their revolt will be put down.

Elisha's servant was afraid because in his humanity he could not see himself and his master - just two of them - being able to fight their way past the Syrian army. To his way of thinking they were in quite a predicament with no one to help and so fear gripped him. The difference between Elisha and his servant was that Elisha's natural and spiritual eyes were opened. He looked at the situation through a totally different pair of eyes than his servant. The servant looked and saw through his natural eyes, his spiritual eyes being closed until Elisha asked God to open them. The sight of the natural eyes is very limited when it comes to the things of God. By looking with his natural eyes he only saw the enemy, he only saw what was against them, he only saw defeat and destruction and death. His master on the other hand looked at the situation from a spiritual vantage point and so was able to see both naturally and spiritually. Elisha saw the Syrian army, but better than that, he saw the Heavenly Army whose Commander-in-Chief is Jehovah Gibbor Himself. For our eyes to be opened I think it takes having a very special and serious relationship with our Abba Father. It is imperative that we spend quality time in His presence in prayer, in reading and studying His Word. In being obedient to His commands and submitting to His will and His way, allowing His Holy Spirit to lead us in all of our ways. In my spiritual battles 1 John 4: 4 strengthens me by reminding me that being a child of God I do not have to fight on my own. I can fight from within, leaning fully on Him who is in me, knowing for sure that I am fighting from a place of victory (Col. 2: 15), for all my battles have already been won by Him who died for me.

The Commander said that He was on neither side because He stands neutral when it comes to mankind. He is the Creator of man and He loves every one of them/us. He hates what we do in disobedience but He loves us. I think that had Jericho chosen to ally themselves with Him, it would have been a different story (e.g. the people of Gibeon). The significance of this is that Joshua recognized who was in control and that he had to receive and follow instructions, hence his fall to the ground and his question "what message does my Lord have for His servant?" This is one time a heavenly body appeared to a human and did not say 'fear not'. So Joshua did not feel fearful. I think he felt reverence, he felt awed, humbled and special (like a child whose daddy had just given him that particular thing he was secretly longing for). After this encounter, I think Joshua really and truly realized what it was to feel 'strong and very courageous' for I am sure that is how he felt.